Why chair yoga is helpful for everyone

There are several reasons why chair yoga can be appropriate, at any age and level of mobility. For example:

• you're at a desk in work and want to take a few stretches

• you're currently resting an ankle/knee/hip following a strain, injury or operation

• you're unsteady on your feet and want to be safe

• you're elderly and have never practised yoga before and want to start safe

• you need to manage your energy, maybe because you're worn out, recovering from an illness, or have ME/CFS/long Covid, but still want to move the body

Chair yoga can enable you to move the body in a variety of ways, but without putting unnecessary strain or load on joints or muscles in the legs.

In chair yoga you can do all the range of movements for the spine including:

• forward folds

• back extensions ('back bends')

• twists

• side bends

• inversions

• lengthening

Plus, if appropriate, you can stand up and use the chair as a support for some standing postures e.g. tree balance, or half foward fold. You can use one or two hands to the chair back, or a foot to the seat, for other postures like standing balances.

Sharing expertise on chair yoga

I've published a chair yoga article in International Therapist, the membership magazine of the Federation of Holistic Therapists (which I belong to), which focused on chair yoga for the not so young in age.

Keeping joints mobile and moving the body gently is vital as we age. For older people new to yoga who may be nervous of trying to get down to the floor for kneeling cat for example, the chair offers a more appropriate and accessible option. This can be seen in the pictures of me in the top right in image below.

Extract from the article in International Therapist on chair yoga - featuring me demonstrating using the chair

Take a chair yoga class with me

I have a 30 minute chair yoga class in YouTube which you can practise with for free.

Click the link for the video (the image above is just an image!)

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